Can anyone help me with my power supply issue?

  • Thread starter Pyrelli
  • 5 comments
  • 587 views
Pyrelli

Pyrelli

203
I've been doing a fair bit of searching but I'm having a bit of trouble. I've recently been trying to revive an old computer I have, with the intention of being a second computer to help with some of my uni work and perhaps a media player/gaming. However I'm pretty sure that all the graphics cards I've looked at need a bigger power supply.

It's pretty old and still uses AGP so I've settled on buying this graphics card Sapphire HD 3850.

My issue is that I don't really understand its power supply needs and I'm completely stumped on what to look for.

My main issues are: are all power supplies generic in the way they are installed (cables, connections to components etc)?

Where it says "450Watt or greater power supply with 30Amps on 12 volt with 2x4 power connector recommended" (at the bottom of the page in the link).. what does the 2x4 bit actually mean?

Finally, is the choice of power supply dependent on the type of components already installed?

I'm going to take out the current supply in there real soon and measure up for dimensions. Sorry about the amount of questions but I'm having a fair bit of trouble. Any answers and perhaps even suggestions on a power supply will be very much appreciated 👍

Pyrelli
 
The 2x4 bit means you need 2 4-pin molex connectors free to plug into and power your card.

2 of these

molex.jpg
 
All power supplies in PC conform to the ATX standard provided its a tower style PC so you should have no problems fitting it in (they are all a standard size).

You can use new PSU's with old computer components however newer ones may have more connectors for modern equpiment such more sata power connectors over molex ones so just make sure you get one which has more old style molex connectors such as the one daan posted. This depends on how old you mean by old computer.

Also older motherboards tend to only need a 20 pin connector from the power supply and new ones need 24 so make sure the connector splits in two.. its called a 20pin + 4 pin output and looks like this.

AntecTP2EPS-24pin.jpg


As for deciding how much wattage your going to need for the new PSU here is a link to a power supply calculator so you can work out based on the components in the PC.

http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

I hope this makes sense and helps in some way... :)

Robin
 
Do you have a brand name computer? HP, Dell, eMachines, ect.

If so, you might have a proprietary power supply, and you'll have to contact the manufacturer.
 
Thanks for all the replies, I think pretty much all my issues have been covered 👍

I just used the calculator that Robin suggested and I guess I might need a larger power supply than I first thought.

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to provide many details about the computer itself but I know very little about it; thanks in part to me being clueless when I first got it (about 4/5 years ago). It's made by Packard Bell (I media 5136).

I'm going to have a good look at the connections an the psu itself tonight and hopefully I'll be able to figure something out.

Once again thanks for all the replies!

Pyrelli
 

Latest Posts

Back